Samajwadi Party seeks referendum on issue of corruption

Seeking a referendum on the issue of corruption, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan today said the Congress is answerable to the nation on the 2G spectrum issue and should not shy away from setting up a JPC to probe the matter.

New Delhi: Seeking a referendum on the issue of corruption, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan today said the Congress is answerable to the nation on the 2G spectrum issue and should not shy away from setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the matter.

"There should be a referendum on the issue of corruption. A huge amount has been siphoned off in just the 2G scam. The Congress is answerable to the nation. If the Prime Minister`s conscience is clear why is he not agreeing on JPC", Khan told reporters here at a press meet in the presence of party president Mulayam Singh Yadav.

He said if the Centre was running away from a referendum on the issue of corruption then the nation`s dream is not being realised.

Khan, who recently rejoined the party after quitting it following differences with Mulayam Singh Yadav, also blamed the Congress for creating terms like `Muslim terrorist and Hindu terrorist` and said these were being used strategically as part of vote bank politics.

"Who is a Muslim terrorist and who is a Hindu terrorist? Terrorists have no religion. These terms are coined by Congress party as part of vote bank politics. This will weaken the fabric of the nation", he said.

He was critical of the several pro-minority schemes announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and said, "In contrast to their promises of launching education schemes, the real outcome is that paltry sums of money are given to Muslims to set up garages and other small businesses".
Khan said his party`s key demand was implementation of the Sachchar Committee`s recommendations that included setting up nearly 2000 universities for minorities and Muslims.

"Let alone accepting these recommendations, Congress president Sonia Gandhi was clueless about the finer details before announcing in Rampur during her campaign for the last Lok Sabha elections that the Mohammed Ali Johar university should be set up", Khan said.

He added that Gandhi did not even know this much that setting up of the university was sanctioned by the UP government and the Centre had a lesser role to play in it.

The Samajwadi Party leader said induction of at least 8-10 Muslim ministers in the Union Cabinet is among their demands so that aspirations of the community are realized.
Asked about the party`s plans in the 2012 Assembly polls and if it would have an alliance with the Congress or BJP, he said the party would announce its strategy at the right time.

Intervening at this point, Mulayam Singh Yadav said even in the Lok Sabha he had said that he would not let senior BJP leader L K Advani become Prime Minister and that the "Samajwadi Party would side with the lesser evil party".